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Aquatic therapy at Eagle Mount Bozeman
Published
12 years agoon
By Jamie Kujawa Explorebigsky.com Contributor
We walk around in the pool for several minutes to warm up. This session is an hour long, and we work on exercises to increase the participant’s range of motion, strengthen his arms and legs and increase mobility.
“How was your weekend? What kind of trouble did you get yourself into?” We joke with the participant, who is a young, fun-loving guy with a huge heart. “Did you help your mom around the house?”
“Nnnnoooo,” he howls. His grin stretches from ear to ear, and his laughter echoes throughout the aquatic center. (When his mom returns to pick her up, he hollers across the pool to her. “Hi Mom! I love you!”)
After this hour is over, I have three kids swim lesson classes to teach.
Eagle Mount is a center for therapeutic recreation for people with disabilities and children with cancer. Each of the 50 participants I work with weekly have some disability. Yet, all of these ‘disabilities’ are left at the door because of the culture of warmth and generosity.
Everyone is free to be him or herself and encouraged to fly. Someone who typically doesn’t stand up or walk around anywhere else may do so at Eagle Mount.
The Eagle Mount pool is a modern, five-lane, 25-yard mixture of salt and chlorine water, equipped with a wide, double-railed staircase, a ramp, and a handicap lift for entry. The water is 89 degrees, an ideal temperature to ensure participants’ muscles stay warm and relaxed. The hot tub is even warmer, and offers great entertainment with its bubbling jets. We offer swim skill classes for children, individual therapy sessions, water aerobics and therapeutic exercise classes.
Pat Whitlock, Aquatic Program Director, is proud of the program and takes impeccable care of the facility. Between the fall and winter sessions Whitlock herself scrubbed the pool and the deck. Each of the three pool staff has daily responsibilities for keeping the place spotless. Whitlock’s goal is to provide Eagle Mount participants with a safe sanctuary where they are free to be themselves and reap the healing benefits of water.
Eagle Mount Bozeman is not just a special place. It’s magical. It changes the lives of everyone involved.
When I come to work, I’m happy. I work with a tremendous people, all of whom have huge, open hearts. And I get to be in the water. I smile a lot when I’m at Eagle Mount—not because I have to, but because I can’t help it.
Jamie Kujawa is the Assistant Aquatics Director at Eagle Mount Bozeman and swims competitively with the Bozeman Masters swim club. She always smells like chlorine. To learn more about the programs at Eagle Mount or to make a donation, visit eaglemount.org, or call (406) 586-1781.
Megan Paulson is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Outlaw Partners.
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My Barking Dog is a nightmare comedy
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My Barking Dog is a nightmare comedy that tells the story of Toby and Melinda, two lonely people whose lives are forever changed the night they encounter a starving coyote at their apartment building. Over time they grow to expect him, leaving ritual offerings to entice the coyote every night. Toby and Melinda forge a connection over this visitor and share curiosity and concern about his presence in the city. The coyote expands their world–until, one night, their world is shattered. Their lives are pushed suddenly into uncharted territory, sending them on a surreal odyssey that changes their city–and the world–forever.
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